Don stepped outside

It felt good to be alone

He wished he was drunk

He thought about something he just said

And how stupid it had sounded

He really should forget about it

He decided to piss, but he couldn't

(A plane passed silently overhead)

The streetlights, and the buds on the trees and the night, were still

It finally came, he took a deep breath

It made him feel strong, and determined

To go back inside

The light

Their backs

The conversations

The couples, romancing, so natural

His friends stare

With eyes like the heads of nails

The others

Glances

With amusement

With evasion

With contempt

So distant

With malice

For being a sty in their engagement

Like swimming underwater in the darkness

Like walking through an empty house

Speaking to an imaginary audience

And being watched from outside by

Someone without a key

He could not dance to anything

Don left

And drove

And howled

And laughed

At himself

He felt he knew what that was

Don woke up

And looked at the night before

He knew what he had to do

He was responsible

In the mirror

He saw his friend